As a doctor caring for homeless people with substance use disorder in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, I have seen the transformative potential that housing combined with tailored addiction care can have (“BMC shutting Mass. and Cass services at nearby hotel: Funding running out for programs at Roundhouse,’’ Page A1, Feb. 23). My patients live in the Roundhouse hotel and have benefited from the lifesaving clinical services there. Some of my patients have already successfully stabilized and moved out of the hotel and on to permanent housing while others are still there working toward that goal. There are so many more still on the street awaiting such support. A resource-rich state, the Commonwealth has the resources to step in and fund this vital initiative if Boston Medical Center is no longer able to do it alone. The harder question is whether our elected officials have the political resolve to stand up for our most dispossessed community members and pledge the support needed to keep critical programs running.

For anyone spending time in the Mass. and Cass area, it is clear that the humanitarian crisis there is far from solved. To stand by and allow Roundhouse clinical and housing programs to sunset prematurely would undoubtedly result in more people living on the street, more public drug use, more overdose deaths, and more misery.

Dr. Jennifer Brody

Boston